Transfer deadline day - Intriguing, but many stars stay put

THE transfer deadline has passed and many clubs were forced into the market on deadline day on Wednesday in a desperate attempt to strengthen their squads until January.

    Having received stiff criticism for the lack of new signings this summer, combined with the departures of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri to Barcelona and Manchester City respectively, a lot of attention was placed on Arsenal’s activities.  Arsene Wenger didn’t disappoint, with five new signings, though the fans might be disappointed to see no world class star come to the Emirates before closure at 11pm.  The top signing he made was the £10million capture of playmaker Mikel Arteta from Everton.  Arteta, who had revealed to BBC Football Focus presenter Dan Walker about his desire to stay at Goodison Park only ten days earlier has made the move to North London and faces big shoes to fill in the void left by Fabregas.  Wenger also strengthened his backline with the captures of big German defender Per Mertesacker from Werder Bremen and talented Brazilian left-back Andre Santos, who leaves behind Fenerbache in the wake of a match-fixing scandal that has engulfed Turkish football.  Also completing moves to Arsenal were Korean attacker Park Chu-Young from AS Monaco and out-of-favour Chelsea midfielder Yossi Benayoun.  Benayoun’s deal is a loan move, with a view to a permanent switch and it is a surprise to see Chelsea be happy to loan players out to a London rival.

    Chelsea did some late business themselves, but it wasn’t the player everyone thought might leave their club.  Despite offering £30million, plus Brazilian set-piece bullet Alex, Tottenham Hotspur rejected Chelsea’s final attempt to land Luka Modric.  For now, Modric stays at Tottenham, but whether he will have the same impact on the North London side remains to be seen, as it seemed like he was keen to make the exit for Chelsea.  So, Chelsea turned their attentions to Liverpool’s Raul Meireles.  Just half an hour before the window shut, Meireles handed in a shock transfer request to Liverpool.  Less than an hour later, he was a Chelsea player.  The midfielder, who scored Liverpool’s winner at Stamford Bridge in the Premiership back in February signed for £12million and gets to work again with new Blues boss Andre-Vilas Boas, which was the main reason for his departure from Anfield.  His conduct is sure to have angered Liverpool fans though, maybe even more so than Fernando Torres after the Spanish striker’s acrimonious departure back in January to Chelsea.

BACK: Craig Bellamy will be hoping for a fruitful second spell at Anfield

      As Meireles was saying his rushed goodbyes, Craig Bellamy was returning to Stanley Park.  Bellamy, who spent one unhappy season in the Rafa Benitez regime (2007-08) signs for Liverpool on a free transfer from Manchester City.  He spent last season on loan at Cardiff City and will provide stiff competition for Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll in the Liverpool attack.  With Bellamy arriving, David N’Gog was deemed surplus to requirements and sold to Bolton Wanderers for £4million.  Also leaving Liverpool were Christian Poulsen, who joined newly promoted French side Evian and Joe Cole, who will be desperate to kick-start his career again with a season-long loan move to Lille.  Will the anticipation of Champions League football push Cole back into the England fold?

     Another winger desperate to get the attention again from Fabio Capello is Shaun Wright-Phillips.  His second spell at Manchester City has ended and it was QPR who beat off stiff competition from Bolton and Stoke City to his signature.  It was a busy few hours for Neil Warnock, who also added Jason Puncheon from Blackpool and Anton Ferdinand from Sunderland to his squad.  Sebastian Bassong was another target, but having waited in West London all day, he was told to return to Tottenham as a potential move for Bolton’s Gary Cahill collapsed over personal terms.  Bassong might be frustrated by these events, but Harry Redknapp was in a charitable move, allowing no less than five players to leave the White Hart Lane roster.

AMBITION: Crouch's move signals Stoke have serious plans

     Alan Hutton and Jermaine Jenas have moved to Aston Villa.  Hutton’s is a permanent deal, worth around £2million, whilst Jenas goes to Villa Park on a loan deal.  David Bentley’s stalled career will be hoping to regain some momentum with recently relegated West Ham United.  Talented youngster Henri Lansbury’s loan move to Upton Park from Arsenal paved the way for PFA Player of the Year, Scott Parker to make a £5million move to Tottenham.  Spurs also sold Wilson Palacios and Peter Crouch, with the pair going to Stoke City for a joint fee of £20million.  These signatures, plus that of Cameron Jerome from Birmingham City have shown how far Stoke are coming as a force in the Premiership.

     Having lost their first three Premiership matches, Steve Kean pulled out one of the deals of the day, by bringing Scott Dann to Blackburn from Birmingham for an undisclosed fee.  Dann’s injury which ended his season at Christmas last year was one of the main factors towards Birmingham’s relegation from the Premiership.  However, Kean’s purchase of Yakubu from Everton has to be seen as questionable.  Yakubu might score a few goals, but his attitude has never endeared himself to anyone.  It was a tough day for Everton, who also sold Jermaine Beckford to rich-spending Leicester City for £3million.  Despite Royston Drenthe’s loan move from Real Madrid, David Moyes knows he needs investment from foreign owners soon and so too do the fans, otherwise it could be a similar story in January.  Other notable transfers included Gael Kakuta joined Bolton on a season’s long loan deal from Chelsea, Shaun Maloney ending a frustrating stint at Celtic to go to Wigan for a cool £1million and Bryan Ruiz’s club-record £10.5million swap from FC Twente to Fulham.

     Although key names such as Modric and Tevez ended up staying at their current owners and it didn’t quite have the impact of the January deadline day, it was an intriguing day, right up to the last minute.  Let’s see what impact these new signings will have for those who’ve spent the cash!

FA Barclays Premiership Report (11th - 13th September 2010)

After the international break, the FA Premier League returned and served up one of the all-time classics on Saturday lunchtime, and an England hopeful seeing his dreams crushed by an unlucky and cruel injury.

Saturday 11^th September: Everton 3-3 Manchester United

For the second time this season, Manchester United threw away a winning advantage in the dying seconds, this time at the hands of Everton, after a masterpiece of a match on Merseyside.  Despite falling behind to a goal from Steven Pienaar, United charged into a 3-1 lead, largely down to clinical defending and a nightmare outing from the dopey Sylvain Distin.  Darren Fletcher levelled the scores before half-time, stealing infront of Distin from close range, before Nemanja Vidic pounced unmarked, then Dimitar Berbatov robbed Distin to continue his rich vein of scoring form.  Entering stoppage time, United were cruising, but got sloppy and conceded injury-time efforts from Tim Cahill’s header and Mikel Arteta’s deflected shot.  It was the first time United chucked away a two-goal lead in ten years in the Premiership and with Wayne Rooney having been pulled out of the match by Sir Alex Ferguson; everyone could talk about the match and not headlines off-the-pitch.

Saturday 11^th September: Newcastle United 0-2 Blackpool

Blackpool leapt into the Champions League positions, after an impressive away win at St. James’s Park against a very disappointing Newcastle United.  It was Newcastle’s first home defeat in sixteen months and their impressive unbeaten record fell as flat as a pancake.  Charlie Adam converted a stoppage time penalty and then deadline day signing DJ Campbell struck home a crispy driven strike in the dying stages on the counter-attack.  Blackpool’s win was dedicated to their youth coach Gary Parkinson, who collapsed with a stroke on Friday night.

Saturday 11^th September: West Ham United 1-3 Chelsea

Chelsea maintained their 100% record and inflicted a fourth successive defeat on West Ham United and Avram Grant.  Two headed goals from Michael Essien set the benchmark for the champions, who rarely were troubled.  Salomon Kalou scored the other goal for the Blues, pouncing on another error from calamity Robert Green in the Hammers goal.  Scott Parker scored a late consolation, before Frederic Piquionne somehow hit the crossbar from one yard out in time added on. 

Saturday 11^th September: Arsenal 4-1 Bolton Wanderers

Arsenal held onto their unbeaten record, with a typical, starring performance, with a bit of help from the referee against Bolton Wanderers.  Laurent Koscieny tapped in after a scrappy build-up, but Johan Elmander took full advantage of a defensive mix-up involving Koscieny and Sebastian Squillaci to draw Bolton level on the stroke of half-time.  Marouane Chamakh had the Gunners back infront early in the second half, before Stuart Attwell sent off Gary Cahill for a late challenge that only merited a yellow card.  Afterwards, Arsene Wenger’s side picked off Wanderers, with Alex Song scoring the 1000^th goal of the Wenger reign before Carlos Vela finished off a picture book 25-pass move with a cool finish eight minutes from time. 

Monday 13^th September: Stoke City 2-1 Aston Villa

Stoke City earned their first points of the season, with a hard-fought and deserved 2-1 success over inconsistent Aston Villa last night.  Despite the tragic death of his mother on Monday morning, Tony Pulis turned up on the dugout at the Britannia Stadium in the second half, and his presence turned the fortunes around for the Potters, who were trailing 1-0 at half-time, due to a Stewart Downing header.  The home side dominated the second half, and won the game with two goals in the last ten minutes, courtesy of a header from Kenwyne Jones, his first goal for his new club, then an injury-time winner from German defender Robert Huth.  Kevin MacDonald was still in caretaker charge of the Villains, with new manager Gerard Houillier absent, as his contract with the FFF (French Football Federation) not expiring until September 26^th. 

Saturday 11^th September: Fulham 2-1 Wolves

Fulham collected their first win of the season, but it came at a cost, with a shocking injury to their star striker Bobby Zamora.  Zamora, who signed a new four-year contract on Friday, laid in agony after an altercation with Karl Henry in the 27^th minute.  Henry’s challenge was excellent, and it was the awkward landing that did the damage for the England striker.  Scans revealed that Zamora suffered a broken leg, with ligament damage also showing up.  He will be out of football for the best part of eight months.  By this stage, Fulham were already behind, when Jelle van Damme arrived unmarked on ten minutes to score for the visitors.  New signing Moussa Dembele turned the game around after the break with two goals, his second coming in the 89^th minute.  Wolves’ day turned bleaker as the match went on, with defender Christophe Berra dismissed for two daft yellow cards.

Saturday 11^th September: West Brom 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur

The 50^th goal of Chris Brunt’s league career was enough for West Brom to earn a deserved draw against Tottenham Hotspur.  Spurs gave debuts to William Gallas and Rafael van der Vaart, and went ahead early on through Luka Modric.  By half-time though, Harry Redknapp’s side were on the backfoot, with Modric leaving the Hawthorns on crutches and Brunt levelling the scores after Spurs failed to clear Marc-Antoine Fortune’s looping cross. 

Sunday 12^th September: Birmingham City 0-0 Liverpool

Liverpool had Pepe Reina to thank for, as they battled to a fortuitous point against a far better Birmingham side at St. Andrews.  The Spanish goalkeeper produced two stunning saves in the first half, to deny Cameron Jerome and Craig Gardner.  Missing Dirk Kuyt through injury and with Fernando Torres still nowhere near his best, Roy Hodgson’s side showed a lack of creativity and will be relieved to escape the Midlands with another point on the board.

Saturday 11^th September: Manchester City 1-1 Blackburn Rovers

Despite their dominance, Manchester City failed to secure the three points against a hard-working Blackburn Rovers at the City of Manchester stadium.  Nikola Kallinic pounced on a dreadful miscommunication between Joe Hart and Kolo Toure to score his second goal of the season, once again from a goalkeeping blunder.  Despite Patrick Vieira rolling back the years with a fine equaliser early in the second half, Roberto Mancini will be frustrated by his team’s failure to convert their opportunities into goals.  This was definitely two points dropped by the multi-millionaires.

Saturday 11^th September: Wigan Athletic 1-1 Sunderland

Asamoah Gyan began repaying the £13million that Sunderland spent on him on deadline day, with the Ghanaian coming off the bench to earn Steve Bruce’s side a share of the spoils at the DW Stadium.  Sunderland were on the backfoot, once Lee Cattermole was sent off for the second time already this season, following two rash tackles inside 27 minutes.  Gyan came on for Danny Wellbeck at half-time and within fifteen minutes, powered the Black Cats ahead from Jordan Henderson’s cross.  They were denied the three points by a late scrambled equaliser from Wigan centre-back Antolin Alcaraz.